Apparatus for cutting potatoes or other tubers or fruits into strips



, y 1959 J. VAN \DER TOGT 2,884,976

- APPARATUS FOR CUTTING POTATOES OR OTHER TUBERS OR FRUITS INTO STRIPS Filed May 10, 1956 4 24 32 )2 FIG! iv? n A Arm/WE r APPARATUS FOR CUTTING POTATOES OR OTHER TUBERS OR FRUITS INTO STRIPS Jan van der Togt, Zwijndrecht, Netherlands, assignor to Tornado N .V., Dordrecht, Netherlands Application May 10, 1956, Serial No. 583,961

Claims priority, application Netherlands June 8, 1955 2 Claims. (Cl. 146-169) This invention relates to an apparatus for cutting potatoes or other tubers or fruits into strips, said apparatus having a base carrying at its front end a frame provided with a grid of crossing knives, a pusher plate being guided between the side walls of the base and being adapted to be moved by means of a hand lever and having projections at its side facing the knife-grid, said projections being adapted to enter the openings between the crossing knives when the pusher plate reaches its foremost position.

The projections at the front face of the pusher plate have for their object to completely drive the potato through the knives. Said projections are usually obtained by depressing the material of the pusher plate on the desired spots but as said depressions are located closely together they can have only a small height so that they are not adapted to completely force the potato through the cutting grid. Moreover the drawback is encountered that due to said projections the pusher plate can not easily be cleaned, as it is enclosed by the side walls and the bottom of the base of the apparatus.

According to the invention said drawbacks are removed and to this end said projections of the pusher plate are constituted by a plate removably secured to said pusher plate and having parallel corrugations and notches perpendicularly directed to said corrugations. The pusher plate itself may thus be completely fiat, so that cleaning thereof after removal of the corrugated plate may be carried out by washing, whereas the corrugated plate after its removal may easily be cleaned separately.

In the drawing, which illustrates an embodiment of the apparatus according to the invention,

Fig. 1 is a longitudinal sectional view of the apparatus along the line I-I in Fig. 2, which shows a front view of the apparatus.

Fig. 3 is a plan view of the pusher plate wtih the corrugated plate connected thereto.

Fig. 4 is a sectional view of a portion of the pusher plate taken approximately along line IV-IV of Fig. 3.

The side walls 1 of the base 24 are secured to a U- shaped frame 2 bent from a metal strip. At the rear end 25 the walls 1 are bent around the legs 26 of a support 3 bent from wire. The bottom 4 of the base consists of a plate, which at 5 is bent around the support 3 and at 6 is welded to the frame 2.

The pusher plate 7 at its opposite vertical sides 27 is provided with tongues 8 bent rearwardly from plate 7 in the direction of support 3 and by means of which the plate 7 is guided in depressions 9 of the side walls 1 of the base 24. Two levers 10 are each secured to the upper end 28 of the vertical sides 29 of the U-shaped frame 2 by means of a pivot 11 and the levers at the tes Patent downwardly bent end 30 are each connected to the tongues 8 of the pusher plate 7 by a connecting link 12 and for this purpose the side walls 1 are each provided with a slot 13 in the depressions 9. Both levers 10 at their rear end 31 are united together by a handle not shown in the drawing.

At the front side 32 of the plate 7 a corrugated plate 14 is provided, the corrugations 33 of which have horizontal notches 15 therein so that projections 16 are formed at the front face 32 of the pusher plate 7. As appears from Fig. 2 said projections 16 may enter into the openings 16a between the crossing knives 17 secured in the cutting frame 18. The corrugated plate 14 at the opposite vertical sides 34 is provided with backwardly directed tongues 19a and 19b and said tongues each extend through a slot 35 in the plate 7. On the side of plate 7 facing support 3 a lock bar 20 is pivotally secured at 37 to the pusher plate 7 and said bar 20 is provided with wings 21 for rotating it and may engage in wedge shaped notches 23 of the tongues 19a and 19b of the corrugated plate 14, so that upon rotation of the lock bar 20 said plate 14 is rigidly secured to the pusher plate 7 and upon turning back the lock bar 20 the plate 14 is released for removing same.

It is finally to be noted that the cutting frame 18 can be removed from its place between the side walls 1 of the base 24 and be locked in its operative position by means of a lock bar 22 which with its upwards bent ends 36 is pivoted on the pivots 11.

What I claim is:

1. An apparatus for cutting potatoes, fruits and the like into strips, comprising a base having side walls and carrying at its front end a frame provided with a grid of crossing knives, a pusher plate guided between the side walls of the base and being adapted to be moved by means of a hand lever, said pusher plate having projections on its side facing the grid of crossing knives, said projections being adapted to enter the openings between the crossing knives when the pusher plate reaches its foremost position, said projections of the pusher plate being defined by a separate plate having parallel corrugations of uniform wall thickness and notches perpendicularly directed to said corrugations and said projections having open sides lying in planes perpendicular to said corrugations whereby the interiors of said projections are hollow and in continuous communication with the space lying between the pusher plate and the grid of knives, said separate plate being removably secured to said pusher plate.

2. An apparatus as defined in claim 1, wherein said pusher plate has openings formed therein and the corrugated plate is provided with two backwardly-directed tongues extending through said openings in the pusher plate, said tongues having notches, and a lock bar pivotally secured to the pusher plate and adapted to engage in said notches of the tongues.

References Cited in the file of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,439,501 Bussinger Dec. 19, 1922 1,623,089 Burpee Apr. 5, 1927 1,867,657 Dellinger July 19, 1932 2,698,038 Polkosnik Dec. 28,1954

FOREIGN PATENTS 468,521 Great Britain July 7, 1937 134,049 Australia Aug. 29, 1949 

